Renovation

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I had quite the productive one, but I still only finished a quarter of what I wanted to accomplish! With my entire family coming into town in just a couple of days, and only a small house to contain them all, I am doing my darndest to get things organized, finish up last minute projects, clean, and get as much food prepped as possible. Whew (and I’m sure many of ya’ll are in the same boat and feeling my pain!)!

My husband and I also decided to take on a new project over the weekend. Remember this kitchen…

Well, we finally decided to repaint it per the upper right hand corner sample color – Benjamin Moore in Silver Sage. I was hemming and hawing over the color for a while, but I’m actually thrilled with the outcome – it really brightens up the kitchen, brings the outdoors in, and makes certain pieces pop:

I also added a little character that expresses my sentiment exactly…

Amen!

What do you think? Do you like the new color (Team Kristen) or do you prefer the original brick-ish red like my husband (Team Tom)?

ps….I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just 2.5 days away! Are you as stressed as I am?

I’m sure I’ve mentioned on multiple occasions the love/hate relationship I have with my kitchen. It’s cute, but in an adorably dirty little kid kind of way. Yeah, it’s small, it’s in need of a new paint job and a good scrub, it desperately needs more cabinet and counter space, and frankly, it’s just a bit embarrassing.

I’m not kidding! Take a peek for yourself…

Eek!

Obviously, per the upper right corner, we will be repainting very soon – as soon as my husband and I can actually agree on a color….(he actually loves the color the kitchen currently is, but considering that I spend far more time in it than he does, I put my foot down and demanded something a little more mellow!).

This window is one of the rare things I love about the kitchen. It brings in so much natural light and manages to keep me fairly entertained while I cook.

But this is where things truly begin to go downhill – oh, the horror! I love open cabinets otherwise, and our kitchen has many of them, but this pantry needs to be behind closed doors, period.

Needless to say, a renovation is necessary, so over the last few months, I’ve been collecting ideas that we could incorporate into this less than ideal kitchen. Here are a few things that I found:

Images via here and here.

Image via here.

Image via here.

With this in mind, let’s go back to the current state of my kitchen with a few plans written in…

With a roof to replace and a studio shed to build, we are probably going to renovate a little at a time, starting with the painting and the bead board, but I’m certain even that tiny bit will go a long way!

What do you think – good start? Any suggestions?